The invention relates to apparatus for protecting the door panels and side panels of an automobile to prevent them from being nicked when persons carelessly park other cars beside the subject automobile and carelessly open their doors so that the edges thereof would strike the side of the protected car if it were not for the protective apparatus.
New car manufacturers and/or automobile dealers frequently attach protective side molding along the side and door panels of automobiles in order to protect the paint thereon from nicks which are usually caused when adjacent parked cars open their doors so widely that the edges of the opened doors contact and gouge the paint of the adjacent parked automobile, sometimes also causing dents in the metal of the contacted side or door panel. The side molding strips, which commonly are formed of rubber-like or plastic material, are fairly attractive and do indeed offer a significant degree of protection to the side panels and door panels of the automobile on which they are installed. However, such side molding strips normally are quite narrow, and do not extend more than approximately one-half inch outward from the surface of the side panel or door panel. Consequently, doors of adjacent parked cars frequently nevertheless damage the finish and paint of many automobiles with such side molding strips attached. This, of course, can be very upsetting to owners of expensive sport cars, luxury automobiles and the like who take great pride in the appearance of their expensive cars.
In order to overcome the shortcomings of such side molding strips, numerous retractable sideguard strips and members have been proposed to engage opening doors of adjacent parked automobiles and prevent the edges of such doors from damaging the paint on the side panels and door panels of the automobile on which such devices are installed. The state of the art for such devices is believed to be accurately shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,704,037; 3,718,357; 3,738,695; 4,217,715; 4,221,410; 4,221,412; 4,234,222; and 4,294,478. Some of the retractable side bumper devices disclosed in the above references, for example, the ones disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,718,357, 4,221,412 and 4,234,222, are unduly complex and expensive. Other devices, such as those in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,704,037 and 3,738,695 are inconvenient to utilize and store when they are not being utilized. Other devices, such as the one shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,221,410 are of inherently weak construction and furthermore are aesthetically quite unpleasing in appearance when they are in their retracted configuration.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved retractable sideguard for automobiles which is not aesthetically unpleasing when in its retracted configuration.
It is another object of the invention to provide a retractable sideguard for automobile door panels and side panels which is of sufficiently rugged construction to be able to effectively prevent damage to the protected door and/or side panels when a heavy door of an adjacent parked car is swung into the side of the first parked car.
It is another object of the invention to provide a retractable sideguard device for an automobile which is not aesthetically unpleasing in appearance when in a retracted configuration, and which also functions effectively as an anti-theft device when in its extended configuration.